Well, for those that were patient, the Xbox 360 demo of Prey is now out, and it comes in at a whopping 1.17GB. The demo has the same content as the PC demo which includes the first five levels of the single player game and two multiplayer levels, but has some different UI menus created by the Xbox 360’s Prey developer Venom Games.
Archives for June 2006
Chromehounds Demo Everywhere, but US and Canada
Chromehounds is now out on the Xbox Live Marketplace…atleast if you live somewhere other than Canada or the U.S.
See Major Nelson for confirmation on this:
You can now download a demo of ‘Chromehounds’ from the Xbox Live Marketplace. This free demo is available in all Xbox Live regions EXCEPT the U.S. and Canada. Yes, you read that right…this demo is not available in the U.S. or Canada.
I don’t know why we did not get the demo, but we didn’t. Hopefully they will release it for all of us at some point.
No Xbox 360 Price Change Rumor
I love listening to rumors when it comes to the Xbox 360 and nothing is better to think about than the price of the machine.
For a while it looked like they were going to drop the price of the machine to compete even better against the PlayStation 3.
A “insider” has said that the Xbox 360 could be skipping the price drop instead bundling the Xbox 360 with the HD DVD drive. A very interesting theory that would be a smart move for Microsoft in combatting the PS3.
iPod Socks Reviewed – Cute, Colorful but Expensive
If you’re like me, you wouldn’t justify buying socks for $5 apiece. Yes, that’s $5 per single sock. And you can’t even wear them on your feet (unless you have very very small feet, that is)! That’s because they’re iPod socks. Coming in packs of six for $29, these soft, colorful socks would fit any iPod (except the Shuffle, that is) for added protection against scratches, bumps, dents, spills or marks.
ForeverGeek recently reviewed the Socks.
The first thing I noticed immediately after placing the Nano in the sock inside my pocket and walking around a bit, was that it doesn’t “jiggle” around my pocket anymore. It remains still and keeps my cellphone still also, and since the two of them would sometimes overlap each other, it’s great, because I no longer have to adjust them from time to time. So my general comfort went up.
A comment-poster on O’Reilly says this,
It’s a very asian idea, cute pretty things with no actual use. (No offense to anyone, I’m asian myself). An idea that gross billions in Asian and with a lot of potential in Northern America, it also works well with Apple’s focus on Asthetics.
The iPod socks aren’t anything revolutionary. In fact, you can use any infants’ socks for the same purpose, and your iPod won’t have to jiggle inside your pockets anymore. They’re more of form over function. It’s nothing like the hard plastic/wooden cases that really protect your iPod from scratches and bumps, but hey, they’re cute! And infant socks just don’t cut it for the cute factor. They don’t come in bright colors with an Apple tag, do they?
Frogger Gamerscore
Full Stomach (10 points): Eat three bugs in a game.
Chicken 1 (10 points): On level 1 stay on the road until the timer is red, then reach home.
Chicken 2 (15 points): On level 2 stay on the road until the timer is red, then reach home.
Well Ordered (15 points): Fill five frog slots from right to left on any level.
Complete Level 2 (15 points): Successfully complete Level 2.
Complete Level 3 (15 points): Successfully complete Level 3.
Complete Level 4 (20 points): Successfully complete Level 4.
Complete Level 5 (20 points): Successfully complete Level 5.
Speed Racing (20 points): Get all frogs home in level 1 under 45 seconds.
Helping Hand (20 points): Save five lady frogs in a game.
Home Sweet Home (20 points): Deliver 15 frogs to the frog home without dying.
Co-op Brilliance (20 points): Get over 30,000 points in an Xbox Live co-op game.
Prey Gamerscore
Accomplish the indicated achievement to get the corresponding number of Gamerscore points:
Last Call (10 points): Successfully complete the Last Call level.
Escape Velocity (10 points): Successfully complete the Escape Velocity level.
Downward Spiral (10 points): Successfully complete the Downward Spiral level.
Rites of Passage (10 points): Successfully complete the Rites Of Passage level.
Second Chances (15 points): Successfully complete the Second Chances level.
[Read more…]
Table Tennis Review
1Up.com has a review up on Rockstar’s Table Tennis. I have been wondering if this game was going to live up to the hype, and even if it was worth renting, and finally I have the answer.
And while it’s conceivable you’ll be playing head-to-head matches obsessively, you really have no other choice. Bare-bones features include only exhibition, tournament, and online play. I gotta wonder, where’s the dorm-room staple 2-on-2 match? (Or beer pong, for that matter? For shame, Rockstar.) The lower $40 price point helps offset these negatives, which is pretty good for a game that can so easily suck in both sportos and your nongaming friends.
The game, which some basically everyone have given it an above average rating earns an average rating of 7.0 from the editors, and 7.9 from visitors to the site. Looks like there is still a big audience for these types of games.
Apple MacBook Reviews
It doesn’t exactly sound as cool as saying “iBook.” It’s as awkward to say “MacBook” as it is to say “MacBook Pro.” Whatever happened to “PowerBook?” That had such a nice tone to it.
Great name or bad, though, we’ll have to live with what Apple has branded its latest breed of entry-level and consumer-oriented laptops, the MacBooks. It seems that black is the new white is the new black with the case of the MacBook, as Apple has come out with black, matte MacBook models (as compared to the white-only iBooks of the 21st century). The black models even fetch a heftier price tag, which some consider to be unjustifiable, given that the only upgrade over the next lower-priced white one is 20 Gigs of hard disc space.
Still, the entry-level MacBook is priced at a reasonable $1,099. At this price point, it competes with low- to mid-range models from other laptop manufacturers. But hey, it’s an Apple, and it’s a class in itself.
Is the MacBook a worthy buy? Here are some reviews that might help shape your opinion.
Laptop Magazine reviews the black MacBook:
There’s a lot to love about the artfully designed MacBook, both in terms of price and performance. It’s a great buy for general home use, and it would make an excellent gift for a grad ready to leave for college. Professionals on a budget could use this system if they wanted to, but we’d suggest that they stick with the more powerful and versatile MacBook Pro.
Pocket-Lint reviewed the MacBook a while back (with particular emphasis on the black model):
We like the black, but it smudges easily. We like the white, but are sure that it will just become dirty like the previous iBooks did a couple of months in.
Then there is the screen. We certainly like it and the new brightness over previous PowerBook models however the screen is reflective in sunlight more than we would have liked.
The list goes on. We like the keyboard, but are worried about the gaps between the keys catching biscuits crumbs. Like the performance, but not when it comes to doing anything heavy duty like games.
Overall then, the MacBook is a mixed bag. If you are an occasional user looking for laptop that is perfect for doing basic entry level things such as basic photo editing, emailing and watching the odd movie then the MacBook is certainly one to look at.
The price while expensive for an entry level laptop, certainly compared to a PC variant, is to a point justifiable as the MacBook does have more flare about it than something that will cut your fingers every time you try to turn it on.
There are the pros and cons. But the general verdict seems to be that the MacBook, while priced a tad higher than models with comparable specs from elsewhere, is an OK buy for casual users, or people who wouldn’t be burning their processors and graphics accelerators with high-end requirements. At least no one is bashing the MacBook as much as the MacBook Pro, as with Elliott Back’s recent top-10 list why not to buy a MacBook Pro!
[tags]MacBook Reviews, Apple MacBook[/tags]
MacBook Pro – A Good Buy?
Notebook computers are a very personal affair. It’s either you like a laptop or hate it. It’s not like a desktop computer where you can replace a part or peripheral if you get tired of the parts that come with it. For example, if you’re not comfortable with your desktop computer’s keyboard, then you can run off to your local computer store or order one online for a five bucks. If you hate your mouse, then you can do the same–you can spend anywhere from five bucks to a hundred for that top-quality wireless optical mouse with ten clickers and rollers.
But a laptop is just different. If you hate a single part, peripheral or design element, then you’d have to live with it. Say, you hate trackpoints–those rubber, eraser-like nubs present on all ThinkPads and other brands–then you should altogether avoid laptops that only use them. If you hate small keyboards, then you’d better go for laptops that are sized 14-inch and above. If you hate to lug around a large notebook, then you should go for a 12-incher or even a sub-notebook.
Same goes for the operating system. These days, it’s Windows versus Mac versus Linux (yes, for the few Linux geeks out there who would rather not pay for their OS, and who would rather tweak every aspect of their OS’s configuration.
The MacBook Pro
The Apple MacBook Pro–the successor to the popular (and expensive) PowerBook notebook line–has been in the market for four months. Hence you’d probably think that it’s mature enough for purchasing. The bugs and issues should have been resolved by this time. More so, its less-powerful (and smaller) sibling, the MacBook has also been released just a couple of months ago.
Also, being Intel-powered machines, you could now run Windows XP on the MacBook Pro (and other Intel-powered Macs) with BaseCamp, which is actually a software package from Apple itself. Pretty soon, with the next Mac OS X release, BaseCamp will be built-in. So here’s another reason to buy a MacBook Pro, isn’t it? You have the best of both worlds: Mac OS X and Windows!
As for the design, well, it’s a Mac. And Macs are known for excellent design inside out. From software to hardware, you would expect the MacBook Pro to be the epitome of laptop perfection. After all, it has those familiar cool PowerBook looks, and with a fast processor powering the familiar Mac OS X that Apple geeks just love.
You would therefore expect recent reviews of the MacBook Pro to be more favorable. However, we chanced upon several online reviews that were to the contrary.
We came across an interesting review of the MacBook Pro by OS News, which is in a dialogue-type format (via TUAW). It’s not that one-person point-of-view review you’d usually read. What’s good about a dialogue-type review is that you get opinions from two persons, and you can read about them arguing about several points. This is actually good from the consumer’s perspective because some aspects of a review are simply too subjective to be covered by one person only.
Thom: This is a mediocre laptop overall, and definitely not worth its hefty, hefty pricetag, especially now that the MacBook has arrived. It is astonishing to see that on three fronts, namely speakers, screen, and keyboard, a 2489E machine (my configuration) gets beaten on these important fronts by a 700USD Dell.
Adam: See, I would argue that this is the best laptop I’ve ever owned. While subsequent generations may leave impatient people like me with lacking 1st generation prototypes, I think it’s been worthwhile. The biggest competition the MBP has is Apple’s own Macbook, which is good enough for about 90% of potential Apple switchers. That said, if you run heavy apps and use a Mac for professional design, music, or video, the MBP is the only real portable for you.
See, two points of view are better than one. What’s great is you see both sides of the coin–there’s the good and the bad being reviewed. It’s definitely more objective than just having one person review the product.
As for the MacBook Pro, we would tend to agree that for those whose needs would mostly be Web surfing, word processing and email, the MacBook may be a better buy. Of course there’s the cool factor of owning a MacBook Pro with the metallic finish, large display, and all. However, the MacBook looks cool, too (especially the black ones, but hey, they’re not as reasonably-priced as the whites). And as many an enthusiast would tell you, it would be best to purchase something not while it’s just a few months in the market. Wait maybe six months to a year, when the glitches have been resolved, product lines updated, and prices possibly reduced. By then you’d have a solid, mature product you can rely on.
Still, if you need the speed, and if you desire that uber-cool form factor, the MacBook Pro looks like a good buy, especially at the ~ $2,000 price point (it’s priced similar to comparable ThinkPads, Vaios and LifeBooks). Hey it’s a Mac! For Apple enthusiasts, that, itself, is enough to warrant a purchase!
Peter Moore Explains Lack of Arcade Content
Microsoft has not added many new titles to the Xbox Live Arcade recently, and the lack of content has become so noticable, that Peter Moore had to defend it in Edge magazine:
Here’s what happened – people didn’t believe that Arcade was going to fly. So we went round a year and a half ago as we were doing the final plans for launching 360, and told our publishing friends that here’s what we think is really cool idea, where you could make games for hundreds of thousands of dollars instead of tens of millions, and at very low risk, but people didn’t believe it. And we released it and it blew the doors down. Now all of a sudden we’re in this phase where Sega, Namco, Konami, Midway… they want some of that. But we do have an important quality bar in place – we could probably throw 300 games up there quickly, and we are trying to get the independent guys going as well. It’s almost going to be like Pop Idol, where someone will pop out suddenly – Geometry Wars is a great example.
I agree that it is hard to convince developers to start work on something new, but being Microsoft has tons of money, they could have offered more incentives to the developers to make the games, like paying the upfront costs of developing a few games for the Arcade, and taking in the money from purchases on Live.
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